we have a weekend habit
that i'm inclined to keep
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| looking South |
we park a block up
(seeking summer shade)
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| pull out your anatomy book...i believe these teeth are in order! |
then stroll down South Elm -
peer in the soon-to-be bowling alley bar
to see if they've started renovations,
cross the street at Horigan's,
linger in front of the cat cafe to watch the windowsill tabbies
(a thick glass between my nose and them),
feel a distinct warm&fuzzy feeling
as we meander past Elsewhere*,
and follow the other folks with our same
weekend habit
(*still my favotie place in town)
to Chez Genese,
where we (later today than usual)
put our name on the waiting list
& reverse stroll back up the street
i have a couple of favorite side streets downtown,
and Lewis Street is my favorite of favorites.
i am especially enamored of the old storefronts
along the north side of the street,
with their high stone curbs and steps,
worn from more than a century of shoes.
sidewalk conversation this morning,
while we waited for our table
at Chez Genese,
led to an invitation to ascend these stairs
& (carefully - oh, my) see the remains of a
red-light hotel (the ritz)
which was above our tour guide's*
lock&key shop
(which was his father's before him,
*Jim Simpson
the building is almost imminently
(there is relief as he says this)
to a "local lady lawyer"
the wooden floors feel precarious,
with permanent - and large - indentations
from the pre-hotel sock factory machines
(Oak Hill Hosiery closed - or moved -
once it was clear heavy machinery was untenable
above the heads of the first-floor tenants)
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| Storage Room |
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| Office, this way |
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| Please Vacate Lobby at 10:30pm |
downtown train
skyward, on the outside,
i feel on more solid ground
the doors have always been my favorite,
original to the the building (1889 or 1890 or 1891,
depending on your source).
fire code, he tells us, insists that doors open out,
into the street;
so this PUSH will disappear.
with conditioned air, fire code, and
the multitude of other liabilities,
these doors will surely not remain.
likely the sign pre-dates the business
Dixie Lock & Key
and made it easy to decide,
back in 1940.
now, not so much.
with good timing,
our table is ready
& we already know
what we will order
we looked at the forecast
with optimism
that morning,
heading out of town
to see college-residing sons.
twenty percent
change of rain
perhaps we misread
for it was
surely
one.hundred.percent
all
day
long
so we
waited out the rain,
checking radar
for a chance
to dash to the car
(he, not me
with my summer sandals)
driving rain,
while driving in the rain,
stretched the length
of the highway.
go south,
it seemed -
but the rain followed us there,
too.
a deceptive respite
as we parked the car.
a-ha, we have come south enough!
we had tickets
& enjoyed the play
but the rain
remained.
grabbed the blue boy
(a stone's throw away)
& drove to the red boy
to see his new place
and celebrate his
twenty-second
(yes!)
birthday,
with enough pizza left
for each to take -
white pizza for the blue;
red pizza for the red.
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| my two college guys |
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| younger brother's happy birthday gift ... fixing youtube tv access! |
the percentages were wrong,
but it worked out
(and i didn't ruin my summer sandals).
